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iPhone OS rename @ WWDC?

ipedro

ipedro

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
6,472
9,253
Toronto, ON
It's obvious to everyone that iPhone OS is becoming an inadequate name for an OS that also runs on iPad, iPod and possibly soon, AppleTV.

It's becoming clear that from his actions and recent comments @ All Things D that Steve Jobs is intent on working towards making Apple's mobile devices a replacement for PCs -- iPhone OS's cars to PC's trucks, as he explained.

With the launch of iPhone OS 4, I think it's probable that Steve Jobs will take the opportunity to announce a new name.

What name do you think would best represent this platform for the next decade?

My vote goes for iOS. When we have enough repeat suggestions, I'll add a poll to this thread.
 
I definitely think there will be a name change, don't know to what though.

iOS sounds good though. But not sure how long Apple will hold onto the 'i' naming convention.
 
Nah, not going to happen. Whats the purpose of renaming the OS, its not like the OS is the star of the party. Apple likes to keep the innards shielded away from the user as much as possible, to that end, they're not concerned about the OS name. Heck most people don't care about it.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Cisco's OS for their routers is called IOS. So doubt it.
 
maflynn said:
Nah, not going to happen. Whats the purpose of renaming the OS, its not like the OS is the star of the party. Apple likes to keep the innards shielded away from the user as much as possible, to that end, they're not concerned about the OS name. Heck most people don't care about it.
Click to expand...
The OS is the star of the party. Other companies have phones with better specs, but the iPhone OS why we have iPhones.
 
fishmoose said:
I definitely think there will be a name change, don't know to what though.

iOS sounds though. But not sure how long Apple will hold onto the 'i' naming convention.
Click to expand...

If anything, the "i" prefix has been in use more than ever. Apple's future rests on products that have all been named "i" -- iPhone, iPod, iPad.

Tilpots said:
They still haven't renamed iTunes and it does so much more than music now. What makes you think they would change their OS name?
Click to expand...

Renaming iTunes would nix that very valuable name, recognized by everybody. iPhone OS still hasn't been established and the iPhone brand would still be used to refer to the phone, not the OS.

maflynn said:
Nah, not going to happen. Whats the purpose of renaming the OS, its not like the OS is the star of the party. Apple likes to keep the innards shielded away from the user as much as possible, to that end, they're not concerned about the OS name. Heck most people don't care about it.
Click to expand...

I disagree: OSX is up there as one of the most advertised Apple brands. Apple goes to large extents to promote the OSX brand, using as you know the famous cat suffix (i.e. OS Snow Leopard) to distinguish versions.
 
Geckotek said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Cisco's OS for their routers is called IOS. So doubt it.
Click to expand...
Well it's only fitting that's what they use. After all, the first iPhone came from Cisco. ;)
 
Apple has spent a lot of money building up the iPhone brand. It is well-known and therefore valuable. I don't think they'll try to build a new OS brand any more than I think they'll abandon OS X.
 
Geckotek said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Cisco's OS for their routers is called IOS. So doubt it.
Click to expand...

Cisco also owns and continues to use the iPhone name, and that's for a product in the same category as Apple's device. A router isn't an OS and iOS is different than IOS so nothing is stopping Apple from adopting it.

EDIT: Cisco's IOS is in fact an OS for the router so Apple may need to negotiate its use with Cisco, like they did with iPhone.

That said, it's just my preference, this thread is about suggesting what you think the OS should be called. The name should have longevity to it so "OS Touch" would probably not stand for much in an era where all operating systems will be touch based.
 
I would think if they were going to change it that they would have made an announcement when they first showed off OS 4.0 in April.

Its clear that this OS is going to grow and be used quite a bit more in the future, so I would think at one point it would change.
 
profets said:
I would think if they were going to change it that they would have made an announcement when they first showed off OS 4.0 in April.

Its clear that this OS is going to grow and be used quite a bit more in the future, so I would think at one point it would change.
Click to expand...

Good points. It's in Apple's benefit to make the change as soon as practically possible, waiting will result in the same cornered situation that Apple finds itself with iTunes.

Let's not forget that Apple already changed it once. iPhone OS was once called "OSX iPhone"
 
Surrix said:
The OS is the star of the party. Other companies have phones with better specs, but the iPhone OS why we have iPhones.
Click to expand...
No the functionality of ease of use is the star not the OS. Apple does not care if its called iOS, or iPhone OS. They don't market the OS, other then announcing the upgrade. When was the last time we saw a commercial touting OS3.1. No we saw how easily apps work and how easily the phone works.


ipedro said:
I disagree: OSX is up there as one of the most advertised Apple brands. Apple goes to large extents to promote the OSX brand, using as you know the famous cat suffix (i.e. OS Snow Leopard) to distinguish versions.
Click to expand...
I agree, but we're not talking about OSX per se, we talking about the iPhone OS (which its based is OSX). As I mentioned above, apple does not market the OS but rather the device. Apple is less concerned about OS and more about delivering an experience - at least when promoting the phone.
 
I agree with the name change idea cuz all the other names that have been thrown out there aren't very good in my opinion.
 
maflynn said:
Nah, not going to happen. Whats the purpose of renaming the OS, its not like the OS is the star of the party. Apple likes to keep the innards shielded away from the user as much as possible, to that end, they're not concerned about the OS name. Heck most people don't care about it.
Click to expand...

I disagree - they renamed Apple Computers to just Apple. I wouldn't be surprised if they renamed iTunes to something else in celebration of iTunes 10 (iTunes X). I do feel that iPhone OS will be renamed too. If there was ever a time to do it, it's in the coming weeks/months.
 
thelatinist said:
Apple has spent a lot of money building up the iPhone brand. It is well-known and therefore valuable. I don't think they'll try to build a new OS brand any more than I think they'll abandon OS X.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but changing the name of the OS really won't affect the name of the product. It'll still be an iPhone, and everyone will still know it as the iPhone. Besides the new OS announcements there's really not a lot of use of the OS name. I think this makes it easier to change than something like iTunes. iTunes is the product itself thats been around for a long time.
 
No "iPhone OS" Banners

Given that there are no WWDC banners with the "iPhone OS" name like in years past, I think there's a greater probability that a new universal name might be announced. At the very least, the possibility isn't annulled by having the iPhoneOS name on banners that wouldn't be changed after an announcement.

I'm going to put this one on my WWDC predictions: iOS for iPhone, iPad & iPod.
 
rablat said:
I vote for OSX Mobile
Click to expand...

Think about the longevity of the name. iPhone OS is going to be adopted by other Apple products such as the next generation AppleTV and possibly even on a simplified touch iMac where "mobile" won't be well suited.

Further, "OS Touch" is going to get old fast when all the next generation OS's are going to be touch based.

OSX has held up great for over a decade and the next Apple OS needs to aim for the same persevered relevance.
 
PBF said:
No name change because iPhone is where it originated.
Click to expand...

So you're suggesting that Apple is going to have iPhone OS installed on AppleTV, on iMac's and whatever other devices they install it on for the next 10 years? I highly doubt that.

Whatever name it gets, the name will be universal because it's becoming obvious that this new OS is the successor to OSX and will carry Apple's products into the next decade.
 
ipedro said:
So you're suggesting that Apple is going to have iPhone OS installed on AppleTV, on iMac's and whatever other devices they install it on for the next 10 years? I highly doubt that.

Whatever name it gets, the name will be universal because it's becoming obvious that this new OS is the successor to OSX and will carry Apple's products into the next decade.
Click to expand...
Why not? Just because it's called iPhone OS doesn't mean it can't be universal. iTunes does so many different things, yet it's called iTunes.
 
I can see Apple holding off renaming the iPhone OS until they get through one more product cycle. I say this because right now the only people who pay for OS upgrades are iPod touch users. iPhone users get auto-updated for free and some probably don't even know they're getting an updated OS until they turn on their phone after syncing it.

Once the iPad version of OS 4.0 is out, everything <i> should </i> be synchronized as far as the timing of OS updates go, therefore they could actually turn iPhone OS into a product. That's when they have to start worrying about giving it a proper name, to sell it to average people. Once they have multiple devices that they will be charging for OS upgrades (iPod, iPad & presumably Apple TV) then they really need a better name to advertise it.

If you remember Mac OS was just simply called "System 3" or "System 4" in it's early years... so they can keep just calling it "OS3" or "OS4" until they get a product strategy figured out and then revamp the name.
 
It seems like they want to associate "i" with mobile devices. I wouldn't be surprised if the iMac gets a new name soon. Okay, probably not, but I do like the idea of "i" associated with mobile.

I also think that iTunes needs to be renamed. But it's too late. The word 'iTunes' is so well known that they could never just throw it away. Maybe they could create a larger application called like, iMedia (or whatever), and then inside of this application would include iTunes, iVideos, iApps, etc.. I'm not talking about a suite of applications here like iLife or iWork, just one app that has named areas like iTunes, so they wouldn't have to drop the name.
 
PBF said:
No name change because iPhone is where it originated.
Click to expand...

According to Steve at D8, it originated with early prototype of the iPad, then released for iPhone, and finally released on iPad, so I think from the beginning Apple had the vision of this OS being something beyond simply the iPhone. A name change would be great provided it encompassed that idea of universal compatibility among a variety of Apple devices.
 
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